So, in summary: both games are more of the same. L4D2 an expansion pack more than a game (thereby thoroughly justifying my choice not to buy it until it comes down to $20) and NSMBW being a throwback to ancient 2D Mario days while forcing 4 players on a screen that was never really built to accommodate it.

Oh well, at least we got to remind Valve they're supposed to be making Episode 3. At this rate, there'll be a L4D-XII before we see it.

Low Key:I like Left 4 Dead 2, although I have admittingly never played the original. Are they really that much alike?

Well in the sense that you are four people killing hordes of zombies in post zombie apocolypse world that has turned many areas into mazes, yes. However, the new characters, voices, weapons, zombies, maps, and improved zombie AI (because the survivor AI is still shit), make the game fresh, new, and much more fun to play. I say "fuck you" to anyone that thinks those changes aren't all that important. I love carrying a sword and cutting down the zombies hordes that apparently tripled in number since L4D1.

Oh yes and Yahtzee complaining about Episode 3 surprised me. Doesn't he hate it when companies just rush to get a new sequel onto the market? So shouldn't he be tolerant of the time it takes for Valve to make Episode 3?

I think it's got more to do with calling Valve on their promise that episodic games would be released in a shorter time period. And it's been 2 years since Ep 2.

I'm glad Yahtzee called Valve out on the whole not getting down to Half-Life 2: Episode 3 thing, because I've been thinking it for ages now. They keep updating games like Team Fortress 2 with superfluous crap (Holy shit, HATS!!! ¬_¬) and never get down to the one game they've made that I still give a damn about. Seriously guys, stop procrastinating and get it done!

Internet Kraken:Oh yes and Yahtzee complaining about Episode 3 surprised me. Doesn't he hate it when companies just rush to get a new sequel onto the market? So shouldn't he be tolerant of the time it takes for Valve to make Episode 3?

The key word here is "episodic." Each episode, thus far, has been 4-6 hours maximum. It's been 2 years since the release of the last one and we haven't even seen a screenshot of the third. That's not how episodic gameplay works!

Low Key:I like Left 4 Dead 2, although I have admittingly never played the original. Are they really that much alike?

no. the gameplay is similar, but everything added makes it feel like a better, more realized game.

you have to forgive yahtzee, he lives in Australia, the evil orphanage for unwanted gamers which forces him to act out against any well made multiplayer games since he cant have the same quality experience we do with them.

meh, you probably won't read this Yahtzee, but I've been playing Silent Hill: Flattered Mammary for a couple of hours and I really enjoy it, so if you get a chance to play it I hope you enjoy it too, though if you're doing a review for it, for the sake of our entertainment I hope you take the piss out of it, which I can already predict that you won't like the "psychological profiling", I've witnessed two so far, and they kinda take you out of the game and are a little gimmicky, but we all knew it would be anyway, right?

Oh, and thank you for ripping apart NewSoupaMarioMeee, Nintendo has seriously lost touch with gamers, not like it's stopping them from making a ton of money off of it

Uh, yeah. Good show as always. Left 4 Dead 2 did feel like an expansion pack, but wasn't anymore or less tedious than the first one. New Super Mario Bros, yeah I kind of knew is was going to be a replay of past games. I guess I need to be smacked for encouraging such behavior. It's really not bad, but is basically a replay of every other Mario side scroller, particularly Mario 3.

You hit the nail on the head about Rochelle in L4D2. No defining characteristics whatsoever.

And am I the only one not that bothered about Half-Life 2: Episode 3? Yeah Valve have completely missed the point of episodic gaming, but honestly, whilst Half-Life 2 and Ep 1 & 2 were fantastic I don't really care that much if it gets delayed to 2012 or something.

If Bowser's been defeated multiple times by a short, stout italian plumber, then I'm sure there wouldn't be much contest against somethign that can take multiple shotguns shells and molotovs to the face.

Yeah, when he mentioned the third and fourth players were two Toads the first thought that came to my head was "What? What? Is it really possible for an entire dev team to be that uncreative?" I can brainstorm for thirty seconds and come up with some cooler ideas than just slapping on two generic red-shirts.

I think he pretty much hit the nail on the hammerhead when he said Mario team are deliberately opposed to new ideas, though. I remember hearing that when Nintendo asked Miyamoto to make a new franchise he went all sad and said "But I want to make a Mario game." GOD FORBID you challenge your creativity right man?

Wow. Yahtzee's certainly mad at Nintendo. Mad enough that I didn't quite get if L4D2 is actually good or not. I've been on the fence for buying it for a few weeks. I played the demo, it was fun. I didn't own the first one but I was already under the impression that they are very much alike.So for someone who didn't have the original, is L4D2 worth buying? Yahtzee played a multiplayer game so I guess that's at least a few points+.